If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.  I am trying to put this into practice, because as of the last two days I have had a problem with sassy, sarcastic, and unnecessary mean comments popping into my brain and sometimes even escaping my lips.  Yikes.  Like when people don’t read the lab book and then ask inane questions, or comment on the wetness and chilliness of a creek.  It is bad.  All of it.  So, I am trying to replace my impatient, mean thoughts with more understanding and kind ones, and only saying nice things.  It’s better for the soul, don’t you think?

I have slowly been trying to open my mind, and I have found that giving things a second chance really is worth it.  Most things that I haven’t liked, I really just didn’t appreciate for their own unique attributes.  This came to me as I was having my bedtime snack, peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Peanut butter, my most hated of all butters (except the ones with trans fats), is now a part of my most favorite snack, packed with good fats, protein, antioxidants, and some more fat and sugar, but who is counting?  I read today anyways that female athletes who eat less than 30% of their diet from fat are more likely to fatigue faster and get injured- not my cup of tea.

Other foods that don’t suck: beans and onions.  I have also discovered this phenomenon with people as well.  Here’s to trying things again!

This is the next life skill that I need to learn. It is inevitable. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to enforce a two minute maximum on dwelling on things and not taking them personally. Let me tell you, I don’t think that two minutes is really sufficient in all cases. Maybe it will be when I am a Rejection Specialist, but I am just not there yet. Also, I don’t know if becoming a Rejection Specialist makes you more emotionally competent or just soulless. Either way, I have a long couple of years coming with this medical school process. I like to remain optimistic, even to a fault, but I had my first brush with it the other day and I don’t think it will be the only time. I got rejected from a letter of recommendation that I had requested from a teacher that I thought adored me. So far I have cried about it (boo) and decided to step up my pre-application efforts (yay). Any tips you have for this sort of thing would be much appreciated, because I need to thicken up my tissue-paper-thin skin.